Ticks can transmit a number of diseases such as Rocky Mount Spotted Fever and Lyme Disease to people and animal hosts. Thus, a tick should be quickly and effectively removed from the host. Improperly removing a tick from a host can increase the chance of the tick infecting the host with a disease or causing other medical problems.
Ticks are often difficult to remove from the host because they insert a portion of their mouth part into the host to reach the blood supply and also secrete an adherent cement onto the skin of the host to help anchor themselves to the host. If a tick is removed improperly from the host, the tick can be mutilated and the head of the tick torn off and left embedded in the host. Such an improper removal of a tick increases the chance that the tick will infect the host with a disease and that the area on the host where a portion of the tick's head is left embedded will become infected.
Prior art tick removing devices and methods that attempt to effectively remove an attached tick are known. Prior art tick removing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,303,268; 4,442,837; 4,976,718; 4,979,771; 5,002,323; 5,078,729; 5,116,347; and 5,137,318.
In order for a tick removing device to be capable of removing a tick effectively, the tick removing device must be capable of securely gripping the tick during the tick removal process. Prior art tick removing devices often require that the user continuously squeeze or apply a pressure to the tick-removing device during the tick removal process. The removal of a tick is more difficult if the user must continuously apply a pressure to the tick removing device in order to grip the tick. In particular, if the person or animal moves while the tick is being removed, the user may loose his or her grip on the tick removing device causing the tick to slip from the tick removing device.
Prior art tick removing devices also often have relatively complex designs, and accordingly are difficult to manufacture and are expensive. Tick removing devices also often tend to wear out after repeated use so that they fail to sufficiently grip a tick to allow for the tick's effective removal.